


Eterno Ritorno

by Tshilaba



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, 魔女と百騎兵 | Majo to hyakkihei | The Witch and the Hundred Knight
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-14 21:55:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8030257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tshilaba/pseuds/Tshilaba
Summary: The continuous return of something important and dear to us, even when we do not realize it is so.





	Eterno Ritorno

Tiny feet pattered down the hall and he smiled slightly, moments before his daughter plowed into him.

"Daddy! Daddy, guess what!" she cried, her bright green eyes shining with excitement.

"What, Lia dear?"

"I saw a pretty black kitty today!"

"Oh?" She was always talking about the animals she found during the day. But a cat was new.

"Mhmm! He had these bright orange eyes and, uh, some weird marks on his front legs. They almost looked orange."

"Ah..."

"He looked sad though," she went on.

He might have told her animals can't make their faces look "sad" if he hadn't turned to see the look on her face. "How so?"

"Like he didn't wanna go back home. He didn't have a collar either."

He nodded and continued to carry the basket of clean laundry up to the second floor. He figured she would go off and play on her but after a few minutes of folding laundry and putting it away she spoke up again.

"Hey...Daddy?"

"What?"

"He seemed lonely. I don't wanna be alone like him. But I don't want him to be alone either."

"Well, sweetie, then I guess all you can do is be nice to him when you see him."

"Can we keep him?"

"I don't think so. Just be his friend, okay?"

"Okay Daddy," she answered, skipping off.

* * *

Pictures she'd drawn over the years were tacked up all along the walls, intermixed with photographs he had taken of important events. It painted a very happy family, even if it was only the two of them. She sat in the middle of teetering stacks of books, her feet pulled against her chest as she flipped through the pages of an exceptionally hefty tome. Every so often, she would reach out and grab a handful of chips, shoving them into her mouth before wiping her hands on her pants and going back to her research. Perhaps even "research" was a subjective term. She had no purpose other than knowledge, reading anything she could get her hands on. Even though her mother had left them very early on, and she was loathe to accept most gifts from the woman she felt abandoned them, she would accept the books that were sent.

Of course, owl post was a return-address optional method of communication, so they never knew where the books were actually coming from. But very few witches and wizards communicated with Muggles, so it was highly unlikely they were any sort of danger.

Her eyes drifted up from the page and focused unintentionally on the drawing of a small black kitten with orange eyes. She remembered her father said she spent ages trying to make it look just like the last time she saw him, that tiny black kitten she'd called Blacky. She couldn't remember any of it. The only thing she had left of those memories was the drawing and her father's word. And while she trusted her father unerringly, it was a bit odd that she couldn't remember it. She was old enough at the time it had happened.

"Lia, could you come down a minute?"

She shook her head to clear the troubling memories, or more the lack of memories. "Yes, Dad!" She marked the place in her book and set it down in the middle of her book-towers, slipping out from between them and jogging out the room. She found her father downstairs in the sitting room, holding the post in his lap. She tilted her head to the side in curiosity, feeling her cowlicks bounce slightly in the breeze created by the ceiling fan. "What's wrong, Dad?" she asked. She could see a rather large package amidst the envelopes. Could it be another book? She really hoped so. With her current speed, she would be through her current selection by the end of the day.

"What special event is coming up?"

She frowned thoughtfully, toying with a strand of golden hair idly. "Um...lesse," she mused. "It's May, so it's not like there's any major holidays coming up or anything, so we don't hafta see family. Oh! My birthday is next week!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Is that another book?"

"It seems to be," he said, handing her the package. "It came by owl, and that's usually the only thing that does."

She took it from him eagerly, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet in anticipation. Wait... "What do you mean "usually", Daddy? The books she sends are the only things that come by owl, coz she knows I won't accept anything else."

In response, he held out another envelope to her, which she took slowly, reading the address.

_Ms. L. Sheach-Fenris_

_Niblhenne Manor_

_Old Hell Road_

_Great Fryup Dale_

_North Yorkshire_

"It's...it's from Hogwarts," she murmured in amazement. She knew her mother was a witch, too taken with wanderlust to settle down even after having her daughter. But she hadn't really expected or dreaded the letter. It was a pleasant sort of _a-ha!_ moment, if anything. She walked over to the couch and sat down, setting the package next to her and opening the envelope. Her eyes skimmed over the letter. It was from Hogwarts, for certain, and it left her mildly curious as to why she hadn't noticed any particular strains of magic in her childhood save, perhaps, for her seemingly strong intuition.

"May I see that?" her father said, holding his hand out for the supply list.

"Oh, yes, of course," she said, passing it to him as she set the letter and envelope down between them before picking up the package and unwrapping it to reveal a copy of _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Potection_ and a letter that fluttered onto her lap. She already had the most recent copies of _A History of Magic_ , _Magical Theory_ , _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ , _Magical Drafts and Potions_ , and _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ thanks to that woman. "Well, this makes one less book we have to get," she said, waving the book slightly. "Just _The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1_ and  _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_ along with my other things."

He nodded absently, still reading.

"She must have known I was getting a letter," she mumbled. "But how? You said she was wandering around and visiting wherever she could."

He stiffened and looked up at her. "Well, Lia, we never really know where your mo--erm, where she is. She could have visited Hogwarts."

"I suppose..." She sighed. _Why does it feel like you're not telling me something, Dad? You've never done that before..._ She stood up, throwing the packaging away and picking up her book before walking back towards the stairs.

"Lia," he said, just as her foot touched the bottom-most step.

"Yes?"

"You have a letter from her."

She bit her lip. She was too pleased by the acceptance letter to want to taint it by thoughts of _her_ , but... She sighed and walked back to the living room, holding out her hand. "Might as well..." she grumbled, taking the letter from her father and reading it.

_Dear Lia,_

_I know you may not like me or enjoy hearing from me, but I know you and your father have little money. So as a birthday and congratulations present, I have sent you a copy of_ The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection _to help you fill out your supply list as you already have most of your other required books. I would have sent these before, but you would have had little need for them outside Hogwarts. Good luck and happy birthday, dear._

_Sincerely,_

_Your mother._

She sighed and and handed the letter back to her father, turning on her heel once more and leaving the room, her fingers twitching in their grasp on the book. She'd never loved and hated a book so much in her life. She'd wanted this book years ago, when that woman first started sending her books on the magical world. She'd had to learn what she could from Arlecchino and Mani, which didn't really help much as most of what they knew of the wizarding world was through the eyes of their race. Arlecchino himself only served her because he'd been left there by that woman. He seemed to have taken a liking to Malia as well, and she couldn't help but feel jealous.

He liked everyone that left her, even the old hag...

She shook her head and tossed the book onto the desk, crossing the room and picking up the book she'd been reading before leaving the room and closing the door, walking down the hall to her room and collapsing onto her bed. She curled up on her side, tracing her fingers over the runes on the cover. _Most Macabre Monstrosities_ had to be one of her favorites, and its pages showed her love. She'd been trying to find the creature she kept seeing in her dreams, but they always ended with that small black cat she'd drawn, the cat she couldn't even remember meeting. It couldn't be a _normal_ cat though. Normal cats didn't have orangish-red markings on their front legs. And it wasn't a Kneazle, since they looked too much like normal cats. So what was that thing? How did it transform into a cat? And why did even _Most Macabre Monstrosities_ or _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ have any information on it? Was it something that had never been found before? A creature so ancient that it surpassed even the basilisk? She closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. _Why did I ever want the old hag to give me another name?_ she wondered. _Nobody even remembers it anyway. I don't mind Dad calling me Lia, but..._

"Master Lia, would you like some tea?"

"Yanno, you're not a very good house elf if you can't even do your job quietly," she snapped.

"My apologies, Master Lia."

"Metallia."

Seemingly ignoring her, he went on. "Would you like some tea? I am preparing some for your father."

"Fine, just leave me the hell alone."

"I shall leave it on the table outside your door. I will knock to let you know when it is there, yes..." He shut the door and shuffled off down the hall.

"Stupid piece of crap can't even remember my name," she muttered irritably as she shoved _Most Macabre Monstrosities_ off the side of her bed where it landed with a soft _thump!_ before curling tighter in on herself. "Why can't I get these feelings to leave me alone? I feel like I'm missing something really really damn important..."

* * *

After what seemed like hours, a knock on her door roused her from the sleep she seemed to have fallen into.

"Master Lia, your tea is awaiting you, yes..."

She sighed and pushed herself up, propping herself up on the palms of her hands before climbing off the bed and walking across the room to open the door. As he had promised, the house elf was gone. But the tea sat on the tray, steam slowly spiraling from the spout of the pitcher, and snacks along with it. She smiled a little in spite of herself. Maybe he remembered the stupidest things at times, but he did at least remember how much she loved candy from Honeydukes. She took the tray into her room and set it on her dresser, pouring herself a cup of tea and sweetening it to her liking before grabbing a handful of Chocolate Frogs from the snack bowl and walking back to her bed, tossing the frogs onto the comforter before climbing onto the bed herself and leaning back against the headboard. She took a sip of her tea and sighed, leaning her head back against the wall and glancing out the window. It was a panorama-style window, with a window seat, that overlooked the marsh of Old Hell Road. She'd always enjoyed the secluded area and its morbid history, but she couldn't help but feel slightly lonely. Malia had been the only one who would come and play with her when she was little, and even then, most of the time ended with them arguing. She didn't miss the arguing, but she did miss the girl herself and what it felt like to have a friend. Arlecchino didn't much count as one, and he wasn't even a very good house elf since he let her dad do any of the work he wanted to, and he often disappeared without a trace at times only to show up later and comment on his "fieldwork". Fieldwork, pah. She set the tea cup down on her nightstand and leaned over to grab a Chocolate Frog, opening the packaging. The frog nearly slipped out of her grasp, but she held fast and bit its head off, chewing thoughtfully as she pulled the card from the package and turned it over. _Huh_ _, it's from the Great War series_ , she mused, realizing the card depicted the witch Deedee, one of the thirteen clans that took on Niike years ago. Why it took thirteen witches to take on a goblin was beyond her, but she supposed there was something she wasn't being told there, and while she wanted to know, she couldn't really bring herself to care. She took another bite of chocolate and read over the description before opening the drawer in her nightstand and tossing it in with the other _Great War_ cards.

It really didn't matter.


End file.
